Note that to be acquitted is not the same as being declared innocent of an offense except for the presumption of innocence in the American judicial system. The court determines if there is sufficient evidence to find someone guilty. Some crimes require a lot of evidence for a conviction, so while there may not be enough evidence to declare someone guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, there also may not be enough evidence to declare a defendant innocent except through the presumption of innocence.

Despite acquittal on criminal charges, controversy remains and civil charges may be pending.

So they always acquit; and then a MAN goes in the night, with a hundred masked cowards at his back and lynches the rascal.

Mark Twain -- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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So incredible that they acquitted her.

Agatha Christie -- And Then There Were None

Then he said I was acquitted and the whole case was closed.

S.E. Hinton -- The Outsiders

A jury’s not made up of battered women, but they’ve been known to acquit them before.

Jodi Picoult -- Nineteen Minutes

Moreover, you said earlier that the judges can be influenced personally but now you insist that an absolute acquittal, as you call it, can never be attained through personal influence.

Franz Kafka -- The Trial

He was tried for treason at Richmond but acquitted.

Edward E. Hale -- The Man Without a Country

Frankly, I don’t see how we can vote for acquittal.

Reginald Rose -- Twelve Angry Men

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"You think they’ll acquit him that fast?" asked Jem.

Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

She is to be tried today, and I hope, I sincerely hope, that she will be acquitted.

Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein

"She is innocent, my Elizabeth," said I, "and that shall be proved; fear nothing, but let your spirits be cheered by the assurance of her acquittal."

Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein

Acquittal practically certain.

Agatha Christie -- And Then There Were None

After all, people don’t like a Coroner’s Inquest, even if the Coroner did acquit me of all blame!

Agatha Christie -- And Then There Were None

It was about not letting her feelings interfere with her ability to get Loomis Bronchetti acquitted.

Jodi Picoult -- Nineteen Minutes

Alex had gotten him acquitted.

Jodi Picoult -- Nineteen Minutes

Jordan would be the first to tell you insanity defenses rarely worked and were grossly overrated, but maybe Peter could be passed off as the real deal-and that was the key to securing an acquittal.

Jodi Picoult -- Nineteen Minutes

Atticus took his career in his hands, made good use of a careless indictment, took his stand before a jury, and accomplished what was never before or afterwards done in Maycomb County: he won an acquittal for a colored boy on a rape charge.

Harper Lee -- Go Set a Watchman

I called on McMillian’s trial lawyers, Bruce Boynton and J. L. Chest— nut, to testify about how much more they could have done to win an acquittal if the State had turned over the evidence it had suppressed.

Bryan Stevenson -- Just Mercy

"I’m sorry for a lot of things:’ "Thank you, Miss Dillard:" I thought Judge Green might grant us a judgment of acquittal at the close of the state’s proof.

Scott Pratt -- An Innocent Client

Related words: absolution , acquittal, mercy .

Markus Zusak -- The Book Thief

The O.J. Simpson acquittal was yesterday afternoon, and the university is embroiled in racial discussion, though not between the races.

Ron Suskind -- A Hope in the Unseen

Too much indebted to the event for his acquittal.

Jane Austen -- Emma

With insanity there can be no acquittal.

Agatha Christie -- The ABC Murders

A strange feature was that Arthur, who wanted to arrange a tournament in celebration of the Queen’s acquittal, fixed upon a place near Corbin as the spot where the tournament was to be held.

T. H. White -- The Once and Future King

And is not the counsel for the defense too modest in asking only for the acquittal of the prisoner?

Fyodor Dostoyevsky -- The Brothers Karamazov

No sooner was the acquittal pronounced, than tears were shed as freely as blood at another time, and such fraternal embraces were bestowed upon the prisoner by as many of both sexes as could rush at him, that after his long and unwholesome confinement he was in danger of fainting from exhaustion; none the less because he knew very well, that the very same people, carried by another current, would have rushed at him with the very same intensity, to rend him to pieces and strew him over…

Charles Dickens -- A Tale of Two Cities

I’m not asking for acquittal, or even leniency, but I am asking for fairness.

Chris Crutcher -- Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

With a much worse grace than that wherewith he had penned the letter to Bois-Guilbert, the Prior wrote an acquittance, discharging Isaac of York of six hundred crowns, advanced to him in his need for acquittal of his ransom, and faithfully promising to hold true compt with him for that sum.

Sir Walter Scott -- Ivanhoe

John Henderson voted for acquittal, the last important act of his Senatorial career.

John F. Kennedy -- Profiles in Courage

His acquittal was complete, his friendship warmly honoured, a lively interest excited for his friend, and his description of the fine country about Lyme so feelingly attended to by the party, that an earnest desire to see Lyme themselves, and a project for going thither was the consequence.

Jane Austen -- Persuasion

…Caesarean section, posthumity with respect to the father and, that rarer form, with respect to the mother, the fratricidal case known as the Childs Murder and rendered memorable by the impassioned plea of Mr Advocate Bushe which secured the acquittal of the wrongfully accused, the rights of primogeniture and king’s bounty touching twins and triplets, miscarriages and infanticides, simulated or dissimulated, the acardiac foetus in foetu and aprosopia due to a congestion, the agnathia…

James Joyce -- Ulysses

…been fatal to him—true that if he had had the thousand pounds still in his hands with all his debts unpaid he would have returned the money to Bulstrode, and taken beggary rather than the rescue which had been sullied with the suspicion of a bribe (for, remember, he was one of the proudest among the sons of men)—nevertheless, he would not turn away from this crushed fellow-mortal whose aid he had used, and make a pitiful effort to get acquittal for himself by howling against another.

George Eliot -- Middlemarch

Double jeopardy is only on his side if he gets an acquittal.

Ted Dekker -- BoneMan’s Daughters

It began to improve immensely in the days which followed on the acquittal of its members.

William Morris -- News from Nowhere

But, setting aside the question of public opinion, there seems to be something wrong in asking a favour of a judge, and thus procuring an acquittal, instead of informing and convincing him.

Plato -- The Apology

When the ballots were counted, 280 jurors had voted to find Socrates guilty, 220 jurors for acquittal.

Doug Linder -- The Trial of Socrates

At the very least she deserves to be able to walk out that door with an acquittal and the chance to put this whole story behind her.

Stieg Larsson -- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest

He couldn’t even speak out against the obvious violence and destruction, after black groups had insisted they were "demonstrations" against the callousness of Korean merchants and the unjust acquittal of the Korean storeowner who’d shot and killed Saranda Harlans.

Chang-rae Lee -- Native Speaker

"Yes; but not only that," said Wemmick, "she went into his service immediately after her acquittal, tamed as she is now.

Charles Dickens -- Great Expectations

Acquittal was certain.

Gloria Naylor -- The Women of Brewster Place

...what sort of acquittal is it you want?

Franz Kafka -- The Trial

So are ninety-nine percent of my clients, and it’s never stopped me from getting acquittals before.

Jodi Picoult -- Nineteen Minutes

One more of us acquitted-too late!

Agatha Christie -- And Then There Were None

But deep down, you don’t want Peter Houghton to get acquitted.

Jodi Picoult -- Nineteen Minutes

My job is to get you acquitted, and I can’t lie in front of the jury.

Jodi Picoult -- Nineteen Minutes

But I do not pretend that my protestations should acquit me; I rest my innocence on a plain and simple explanation of the facts which have been adduced against me, and I hope the character I have always borne will incline my judges to a favourable interpretation where any circumstance appears doubtful or suspicious.

Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein

It was either a straight acquittal or nothing.

Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird

I don’t know of any absolute acquittals but I do know of many times when a judge has been influenced.